knotted sleeper

August 17th, 2011

I fell in love with this little sleeper when I first saw it: it’s like those nightgowns for newborns, except stylish. At 40 bucks, it was a little out of my price range, but looked simple enough to recreate. Well, mine doesn’t quite live up to the original, but I think I got close.

The pattern came from the book Growing Up Sew Liberated (which I reviewed here). The more I use this book the better it gets. A rare thing among craft books! Normally they are all eye candy, but look a little deeper and it turns out they are mostly errata and confusing directions. To alter the pattern I just extended the bottom bit, so it looked like it would tie up nicely. The edge really needs a rolled finish, but I’m not that handy with the serger so I left it raw. I might make this again and try to get the knot bit right.

21 Responses to knotted sleeper

oh this is just beautiful. I love it, and at first glimpse I thought it was store bought. Yay to you! I thought the raw edging on the knot looked great. Ohhhhhhh so wishing I had a little one to slip into such warm stripey goodness again. Thanks for sharing. Oh and just love your baby shower cake toppers, how awesome.

Looks great! I think knits are fine with unfinished edges, my homemade t-shirts often have raw edges too! I’ve been thinking hard about buying that book – I think you’ve tipped me over the edge to go and buy it ;-)

Are you able to adjust the length of the sleeper with the knot? If so, I think this would be a great sleeper to have. My daughter grew out of the length of her sleeper before the width. I wish I had been able to make it longer.

Don’t raw knit edges just curl up anyway?
Well, the design looks fantastic. Thanks for the idea! Anything you can just pop over baby’s head is a winner, in my opinion. (And tie at the bottom! Brilliant)

I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks $40 for a sleeper (or any article of baby/toddler clothing) is k-razy! And I couldn’t agree with you more on Growing Up Sew Liberated – I have a few other sewing books and you are totally right, eye candy and then frustration. And 90% patterns for girls which sucks for us sewers with boys. GUSL is functional, practical and dare I say it – easy. Love the knotted sleeper that you made, the only real difference I see is the style of knot tied in the bottom – your may need to be longer at the bottom to do their style, but I like yours better, because your style of knot would be far easier to undo in the depths of a sleep-deprived night. Keep up the inspiration. Awesome blog.